Dr Clément Bonnerot

School of Physics and Astronomy
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Email: c.a.bonnerot@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Clément Bonnerot is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the theoretical modelling of transient and high-energy phenomena, particularly tidal disruption events.

Qualifications

PhD in Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory, 2017

Biography

Clément Bonnerot received his PhD from Leiden Observatory in 2017. He then spent three years as a post-doctoral researcher in the TAPIR group at the California Institute of Technology, followed by two years as a Marie Curie fellow in the Theoretical Astrophysics Group of the Niels Bohr International Academy in Copenhagen.

He became an Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham in February 2023.

Teaching

Year 4 Relativistic Astrophysics module

Postgraduate supervision

Supervision of PhD students on topics related to transient and high-energy astrophysics.

Research

When an unlucky star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, it is torn apart by strong gravitational forces, after which the stellar debris fuels the black hole causing the emission of a powerful electromagnetic flare detectable by our telescopes.

These phenomena, referred to as “tidal disruption events”, are unique in their ability to shed light on a population of low-mass and otherwise dormant supermassive black holes, which is essential to solve the mystery of how these gargantuan objects formed.

Clément Bonnerot’s research focuses on the theoretical modelling of such events to better understand the physics underlying their observational signatures and maximize their potential to study supermassive black holes, their environment, and the extreme processes happening in their vicinity.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Goodwin, AJ, Mummery, A, Laskar, T, Alexander, KD, Anderson, GE, Bietenholz, M, Bonnerot, C, Christy, CT, Golay, W, Lu, W, Margutti, R, Miller-Jones, JCA, Ramirez-Ruiz, E, Saxton, R & Velzen, SV 2025, 'A Second Radio Flare from the Tidal Disruption Event AT2020vwl: A Delayed Outflow Ejection?', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 981, no. 2, 122. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adb0b1

Gangardt, D, Trani, AA, Bonnerot, C & Gerosa, D 2024, 'pAGN: the one-stop solution for AGN disc modelling ', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 530, no. 4, stae1117, pp. 3689-3705. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1117

Nicholl, M, Pasham, DR, Mummery, A, Guolo, M, Gendreau, K, Dewangan, GC, Ferrara, EC, Remillard, R, Bonnerot, C, Chakraborty, J, Hajela, A, Dhillon, VS, Gillan, AF, Greenwood, J, Huber, ME, Janiuk, A, Salvesen, G, van Velzen, S, Aamer, A, Alexander, KD, Angus, CR, Arzoumanian, Z, Auchettl, K, Berger, E, de Boer, T, Cendes, Y, Chambers, KC, Chen, T-W, Chornock, R, Fulton, MD, Gao, H, Gillanders, JH, Gomez, S, Gompertz, BP, Fabian, AC, Herman, J, Ingram, A, Kara, E, Laskar, T, Lawrence, A, Lin, C-C, Lowe, TB, Magnier, EA, Margutti, R, McGee, SL, Minguez, P, Moore, T, Nathan, E, Oates, SR, Patra, KC, Ramsden, P, Ravi, V, Ridley, EJ, Sheng, X, Smartt, SJ, Smith, KW, Srivastav, S, Stein, R, Stevance, HF, Turner, SGD, Wainscoat, RJ, Weston, J, Wevers, T & Young, DR 2024, 'Quasi-periodic X-ray eruptions years after a nearby tidal disruption event', Nature, vol. 634, no. 8035, pp. 804-808. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08023-6

Jankovič, T, Bonnerot, C & Gomboc, A 2024, 'Spin-induced offset stream self-crossing shocks in tidal disruption events', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 529, no. 1, pp. 673-687. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae580

Oates, SR, Kuin, NPM, Nicholl, M, Marshall, F, Ridley, E, Boutsia, K, Breeveld, AA, Buckley, DAH, Cenko, SB, Pasquale, MD, Edwards, PG, Gromadzki, M, Gupta, R, Laha, S, Morrell, N, Orio, M, Pandey, SB, Page, MJ, Page, KL, Parsotan, T, Rau, A, Schady, P, Stevens, J, Brown, PJ, Evans, PA, Gronwall, C, Kennea, JA, Klingler, NJ, Siegel, MH, Tohuvavohu, A, Ambrosi, E, Barthelmy, SD, Beardmore, AP, Bernardini, MG, Bonnerot, C, Campana, S, Caputo, R, Ciroi, S, Cusumano, G, D'Ai, A, D'Avanzo, P, D'Elia, V, Giommi, P, Hartmann, DH, Krimm, HA, Malesani, DB, Melandri, A, Nousek, JA, O'Brien, PT, Osborne, JP, Pagani, C, Palmer, DM, Perri, M, Racusin, JL, Sakamoto, T, Sbarufatti, B, Schlieder, JE, Tagliaferri, G, Troja, E & Xu, D 2024, 'Swift/UVOT discovery of Swift J221951-484240: a UV luminous ambiguous nuclear transient', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 530, no. 2, pp. 1688-1710. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae795

Malyali, A, Rau, A, Bonnerot, C, Goodwin, AJ, Liu, Z, Anderson, GE, Brink, J, Buckley, DAH, Merloni, A, Miller-Jones, JCA, Grotova, I & Kawka, A 2024, 'Transient fading X-ray emission detected during the optical rise of a tidal disruption event', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 531, no. 1, pp. 1256. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae927

Batra, G, Lu, W, Bonnerot, C & Phinney, ES 2023, 'General Relativistic Stream Crossing in Tidal Disruption Events', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 520, no. 4, pp. 5192–5208. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad318

Charalampopoulos, P, Bulla, M, Bonnerot, C & Leloudas, G 2023, 'Modeling continuum polarization levels of tidal disruption events based on the collision-induced outflow mode', A&A, vol. 670, A150. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202245014

Goodwin, AJ, van Velzen, S, Miller-Jones, JCA, Mummery, A, Bietenholz, MF, Wederfoort, A, Hammerstein, E, Bonnerot, C, Hoffmann, J & Yan, L 2022, 'AT2019azh: an unusually long-lived, radio-bright thermal tidal disruption event', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 511, no. 4, pp. 5328–5345. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac333

Bonnerot, C, Pessah, ME & Lu, W 2022, 'From Pericenter and Back: Full Debris Stream Evolution in Tidal Disruption Events', Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 931, L6. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac6950

Lu, W, Fuller, J, Quataert, E & Bonnerot, C 2022, 'On rapid binary mass transfer -- I. Physical model', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 519, no. 1, pp. 1409–1424. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3621

Bonnerot, C & Lu, W 2022, 'The nozzle shock in tidal disruption events', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 511, no. 2, pp. 2147–2169. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac146

Bonnerot, C, Lu, W & Hopkins, PF 2021, 'First light from tidal disruption events', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 504, no. 4, pp. 4885-4905. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab398

Bonnerot, C & Stone, NC 2021, 'Formation of an Accretion Flow', Space Science Reviews, vol. 217, no. 1, 16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00789-1

Lu, W, Beniamini, P & Bonnerot, C 2020, 'On the formation of GW190814', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 500, no. 2, pp. 1817–1832. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3372

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